The present invention relates to wheel assemblies for movable agricultural irrigation systems.
Movable agricultural irrigation systems such as center-pivot and linear systems are commonly used to irrigate large fields and typically include several irrigation spans mounted on movable support towers. Each movable support tower includes two wheel assemblies configured to traverse a path along the ground for moving the irrigation spans across the fields. After multiple passes of the irrigation system, the path often develops deep ruts in which the wheels of the wheel assemblies can become stuck. The path can be repaired by filling the ruts with soil or other material, but this requires a substantial amount of material, is time consuming, and is difficult to do without damaging crops in the process. Alternatively, the wheels of the wheel assemblies can be replaced with wider wheels for traversing un-worn ground adjacent to the path, but this requires an additional set of wheels and further damages the path. Moreover, this solution does not work if the current set of wheels is the widest available. Ruts can also be minimized by shifting the center pivot point by a few feet so that the wheel assemblies create a new path, but this results in the destruction of additional crops and may cause the wheel assemblies to become stuck or misaligned when crossing over the worn path. Also, this requires the installation of additional pipe and electrical center-pivot components.